I mean, she's right. We're not that enlightened. A huge percentage of our population is downright backwards and stuck in the past; unable to move beyond its silly resentments. We shouldn't pretend otherwise.

To discourage AI use in writing, I implemented a deliberate scaffolding approach where smaller chunks of writing would build toward a larger end product in the form of an essay. I also included a video assignment where they'd talk about their essays.

LOVE that Lina Khan is part of Zohran's transition team.

It irks me that I seem to catch more and more typos nowadays in major outlets that should know better. Look, we all have typos, but your desire to be early should not outweigh basic copyediting to avoid embarrassment. How about one more round of proofreading before you post?

Great to see the results in Virginia, New York City, New Jersey, and especially, Prop 50 in my own state!

A World Series with a Canadian team is the best time to point out a funny trend--how often I've looked up an actor of a show I'm watching and I think to myself, "huh, I had no idea that person was Canadian." Haha! And I'm sure Canadians absolutely hate hearing that.

I LOVED hearing @jvl.bsky.social go off on voters' economic illiteracy. He's 100% right that deflation would not be a good sign. It's something I teach since deflation was a major cause of the Great Depression. I bet "the price of eggs" meme drove him crazy like it did for me.

I like how county officials in California let you know when they've received and counted your ballot. I hope that Prop 50 passes.

So many things absolutely horrify me. Annual growth rate in GDP per capita under Trump (pre-COVID): 1.7% Annual growth rate in GDP per capita under Biden: 3% Under Biden, we heard endlessly about the price of eggs and gas. That's RW media manipulation and Dems not selling accomplishments.

My thoughts: 1. An average increase of 0.5 degrees warming every 10-15 years? For all the times that deniers or minimizers accuse us of being "alarmists," this data is alarming indeed. Something is really wrong if average temperatures are increasing that quickly. The planet is large.

Since I know and like plenty of Boomers, just as I know and like plenty of Christians, and since I like maintaining positive relations, I worry sometimes that if I'm too honest in what I really think, I might offend them. Then I think, no, the Kim Davises of the world actually do exist.

My dream that would never come true in a million years. I'd sit down with John Roberts, ACB, Clarence, Dahlia Lithwick, Ian Millhiser, and Scalito. I'd ask the justices, look what you've done? Our politicians are bought off and only listen to money. Do you really think money is speech?

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... Makes me mad. I don't think the wealthy alone should be able to power the economy. I think they have too much wealth.

There are lots of ways to see the Comey indictment. Revenge by a petty, feeble man is one. The most alarming interpretation holds that it is evidence of how Republicans create their own reality.

"Stocks reach record highs on AI optimism." Do you know how often I've seen a headline like this lately? What exactly is this optimism? How is AI going to make our lives better? I could maybe see some advancements in science and medicine, but beyond that?

It's only been about a month so far this semester! Seems like it's been longer. I've been working hard and grading. Hope everyone else's semester is going well! :)

I object to this. We can always have reasonable debates about evidence and interpretation, but this seems like an effort to *erase* the past--something that should be beyond the pale. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/... It takes 27 paragraphs before you get to this damning info about Republican parents and vaccines. WaPo has gone WAY downhill. This is consistent with other polling I've seen on rating Trump ahead of Lincoln and Reagan, and that the 2020 election was stolen.

I'm really troubled by this firing.

I've been saying for years that student evals--and their connection to grade inflation--are a major problem illustrating how universities are run like businesses. This model compromises rigor. There's actually a decent-sized literature on this. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

It's nice to see at least *someone* hold their leader accountable for an authoritarian coup. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

sigh...things are about to get real.

A prof at Texas A&M was lecturing on gender. A student starts recording, objects to the lesson plan on the grounds that her religion and Trump say otherwise (eyes rolling), and now the professor is fired. Every day is a nightmare. I'm thinking of Alexis Bledel's character in the Handmaid's Tale.

@hcrichardson.bsky.social on @podsaveamerica.crooked.com, talking about nineteenth century media: "You hoped you got enough printing contracts and enough subscribers to put food on the table. It was never a huge moneymaking proposition."

We were told they voted for him because of the economy. Whatever. That argument has never held much merit. Extensive research going back to 2016 indicates race, immigration, gender, and authoritarianism were far more important.

Mad at quacks Ladapo, RFK, and De Santis getting rid of ALL vaccine requirements? I am, too. No way to understand this and Trumpism sans religion. Ladapo literally says it: your body is a "gift from God." And I've got tons of articles linking evangelical Christianity and anti-vaxx nonsense.

What if we were all too busy with our jobs and lives and in just a few years the U.S. turned into an authoritarian state? I heard Kate Shaw (whom I love) try to make sense of John Roberts's jurisprudence on the EK Show.

I've committed to doing something: I'm going to write the lecture on the Trump era. I teach a modern U.S. history course so we're supposed to go up to the present. How to get all the chaos into one lecture? That will be a daunting challenge.

The spoiled, narcissistic 8-year-old child will go crying to mommy and daddy at the Supreme Court, asking them to bail him out once again. The originalists, in turn, will enable dictatorship by pretending they understand history better than scholarly historians. #TrumpsTariffs

Groan...I'm grading a discussion assignment in an online class. A large number of students are making the same type of grammatical mistake in the form of a run-on sentence. This seems odd and suspicious to me since we'd normally expect a variety of mistakes in student writing.

One thing I think about often is what we will call this era? The authoritarian turn? I'm not sure if that many history professors assign textbook chapters anymore, but I always like to see how historians update their textbooks to stay current.

This was a good article. Thanks to @clintsmithiii.bsky.social for writing it.

that's *really* insulting for the prof to say that about other professors' work, as if there must be a one-size-fits-all approach to education with a certain ideological worldview that looks at college exclusively from the lens of career prep. I can't reply to Shannon so maybe someone else can?

With California and Texas going at it, each side representing a radically different vision of the future of the country, it kind of feels like the 1840s and 50s again. Back then, Texas stood for slavery and racial hierarchy, and eventually, secession and treason.

We should teach this and spread it.

FFS, stop talking about Sydney Sweeney! This didn't need to become a thing and quite frankly, it makes all of you look foolish for turning it into a thing.

A new semester starts this week. I've got a positive attitude and think it's good to have one at the beginning of the semester. Whether I feel that way in two months is another matter entirely.

The rate at which the planet is warming is accelerating. And a climate denier occupies the White House. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...

Say what you will about Newsom. He deserves criticism on some things. He's too close to PG&E, for example, and they suck. But the EV mandate is great and fighting back on redistricting is the type of pushback against Trumpian authoritarianism for which liberals are desperate.

I visited the same spot roughly 1 year apart, August 2024 and August 2025. These are photographs of Inspiration Point, near the town of Wrightwood. You can see the effects of the fires.

One of the joys of transcribing primary sources is learning about how certain fears and anxieties are perennial. In this letter from 1836, a mother in South Carolina writes to one of her sons in Baltimore about the educational potential of her other son.

Awesome, @profmsinha.bsky.social! I've felt this for a long time -- John Roberts is only the more palatable, polite version of Trump. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/o...

He receives data he doesn't like and how does he respond? By lashing out and firing people. Another competent expert gone. This is what authoritarians do. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Was watching @hcrichardson.bsky.social and @jbf1755.bsky.social for a few minutes and their comments got me to thinking about the responsibilities of citizenship, comparisons to other countries, and the typical response of the Trumpian right.

Let me highlight a couple of trends I've seen in my feeds today: 1. Global civil society organizations have placed the U.S. on a watchlist and ranked us alongside Turkey, Kenya, and El Salvador. Is this making America "great"?

Rosie O'Donnell talks about her move to Ireland due to Trump's authoritarianism. The Irish have welcomed her and she seems to be having a good time. And of course, solid critiques of Trump's America. www.youtube.com/watch?v=stFj...

Ask yourself, is this imagined conversation: 1. An abolitionist talking to a pro-slavery planter in 1850 Alabama? 2. A climate activist speaking to a fossil fuel apologist in 2025? Take your pick, they both work. Interesting how some ideas remain constant amid vastly different circumstances.

Hulk Hogan. I laughed at some dumb movie he was in when I was 8 yo. Now our politics has become Hoganized--image, fake masculinity, shallow performance, manufactured drama, "real Americans," and suing media orgs into bankruptcy, etc. It appeals to people who didn't ever move beyond 8 years old.

Earlier today Venus Williams played and won a match at a pro tennis tournament in Washington, D.C. She is forty-five years old. I was a ball kid for one of her earliest matches at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland. That match was almost THIRTY YEARS AGO! www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSOI...

Spectacular view of the Santa Barbara Channel and Santa Cruz Island from the Cold Spring Trail near Montecito. More of these coming.